HOUSTON, March 23, 2017 (PCW)--US March propylene contracts fully settled Thursday at 52 cpp for polymer grade and at 50.5 cpp for chemical grade, a 4 cpp increase from February.

The increase is the third consecutive one. The last time contracts were near this month's price was in December 2014, when PGP was 61.5 cpp and CGP was 60 cpp. At that time, spot PGP was trading in the 52-62 cpp range.

So far this month, spot PGP has traded up to 53 cpp for March delivery. The month-to-date March weighted average for PGP was 51.731 cpp as of Thursday, compared with 47.115 cpp in February.

On the feedstock side, spot refinery grade propylene (used to feed PGP and CGP splitters) has traded up to 45 cpp so far this month, higher than its range of 34.25-40 cpp in February. Spot propane (used to feed PDH units) has seen its price decline in March, trading down from 62.25 cpg (or an equivalent of 14.71 cpp) at the start of the month to 58.5 cpg on (13.83 cpp) Thursday. --
Samantha Hartke